Information Processing System, Non-Transitory Computer Readable Medium Storing Information Processing Program, and Information Processing Method

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2024-047164 filed Mar. 22, 2024.

The present invention relates to an information processing system, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing an information processing program, and an information processing method.

JP1996-84251A describes an image processing apparatus that, in a case of adding a tracking pattern that is difficult to identify or is unidentifiable by the naked eye to a copy, prevents the tracking pattern on the copy from being visible even in a case of copying a document to which the tracking pattern has already been added.

Aspects of non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an information processing system, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing an information processing program, and an information processing method that can prevent hidden information from being printed by a second coloring material in a case in which a first coloring material that is determined in advance as a coloring material for printing the hidden information is replaced with the second coloring material.

Aspects of certain non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure address the above advantages and/or other advantages not described above. However, aspects of the non-limiting embodiments are not required to address the advantages described above, and aspects of the non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure may not address advantages described above.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an information processing system including: at least one processor configured to: print hidden information by using a predetermined first coloring material in a case of executing printing of image information on a recording medium using a plurality of coloring materials; and not print the hidden information in a case in which the first coloring material is replaced with a second coloring material.

Hereinafter, an information processing system, an information processing program, and an information processing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Components indicated by the identical reference numeral in the respective drawings mean the identical components. However, unless otherwise noted in the specification, the number of each component is not limited to one, and a plurality of each component may be present.

Further, the description of duplicate configurations and reference numerals in the respective drawings may be omitted. The present disclosure is not limited to the following exemplary embodiments, and can be implemented with appropriate modifications such as omission of configurations, replacement with different configurations, and use in combination with one exemplary embodiment and various modification examples, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

An information processing systemshown inis a system built in an image forming apparatus. The term “system” in the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes a system configured by a single apparatus, a system configured by a plurality of apparatuses, and a system constructed in a higher-level apparatus or system. That is, the information processing systemaccording to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured over a plurality of apparatuses other than the image forming apparatus.

Various types of processing executed by the information processing systemcan also be executed in a cloud, an on-premises server, an edge server, an endpoint, and the like.

Details will be described below, but the information processing systemcan prevent hidden information from being printed by a coloring material other than a predetermined coloring material in the image forming apparatusthat can print the hidden information.

Image Forming Apparatus

The image forming apparatusaccording to the present exemplary embodiment receives a job via an input operation performed by a user and executes a designated job. An example of the job executed by the image forming apparatusis a printing job of forming a document image generated from a loaded document or the like on a recording medium such as paper.

The document loaded into the image forming apparatusmay be a document set in an image reading unit, which will be described below, or a document acquired from a network via a communication interface (I/F) unit, which will be described below.

The image forming apparatusis formed of a body part, an input unit, a duplexing auto document feeder, the image reading unit, a paper transport device, and an output unit. In addition, the image forming apparatusincludes a control device.

The image forming apparatuscan print “hidden information” as a tracking pattern that is difficult to identify with the naked eye on the recording medium. The hidden information is printed by dots having a size equal to or smaller than a predetermined size. The hidden information is printed by using a coloring material of a color that is not conspicuous.

The body partis a housing in which an image forming unitA, a cartridgeB, a color sensorC, and the like are stored.

The image forming unitA forms the document image generated by the image reading unitdescribed below on the recording medium such as paper, for example, by using an electrophotographic method, an ink jet recording method, or the like.

In a case in which the image forming unitA adopts the electrophotographic method, the cartridgeB is a toner cartridge containing a toner as an example of the coloring material. Further, in a case in which the image forming unitA adopts the ink jet recording method, the cartridgeB is an ink cartridge containing an ink as an example of the coloring material.

The image forming apparatuscan print image information on the recording medium by using a plurality of coloring materials. Therefore, a plurality of cartridgesB are stored in the image forming apparatus. These cartridgesB can be stored in a combination of various coloring materials.

Examples of the combination of the coloring materials include the following combinations.

Among these, the yellow and transparent coloring materials are a “first coloring material” that can print the “hidden information”, and the other colors are a “second coloring material” that does not print the hidden information in general. The hidden information may be printed by using the second coloring material, but the details will be described below.

The color sensorC is a color identification sensor capable of identifying the color of the coloring material filled in the cartridgeB. The color sensorC can identify the color of the coloring material filled in each cartridgeB. In addition, the color sensorC can identify whether or not the first coloring material is included in the coloring material filled in each cartridgeB.

The input unitis an interface that allows the user to perform the input operation of the job executed by the image forming apparatus. The user can input an execution instruction for printing of the image information and an execution instruction for printing of the hidden information via the input unit. The input unitincludes a display unitA and an operation unitB. The hidden information may be printed regardless of the execution instruction of the user.

The display unitA is configured by combining, for example, a touch panel with a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, or the like. An image or the like is displayed on the display unitA, in response to a touch operation of the user, processing of the image forming apparatus, or the like. The operation unitB is an operation key, an operation button, a power button, and the like that are provided in the image forming apparatus.

The user can designate a job content to the image forming apparatusor input an execution instruction for the job by performing the touch operation on the display unitA, pressing the operation button on the operation unitB, or the like. The input operation of the user may be performed via the operation unitB.

The duplexing auto document feeder(DADF) is a transport device that transports the document by a transport roller (not shown). The duplexing auto document feederis installed at an upper end portion of the body part, and serves as a platen cover that covers the image reading unit (platen glass), which will be described below, and is disposed to be openable and closable.

The duplexing auto document feederis provided with a paper table. The paper table is a tray on which one or a plurality of documents to be read by the image reading unitcan be set.

The image reading unitis a platen including a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor or the like that reads the document set on the paper table of the duplexing auto document feederto generate the document image on an upper end surface of the body part.

By opening the duplexing auto document feederas the platen cover, one document to be read by the image reading unitcan be set in the image reading unit.

The paper transport devicetransports the paper as the recording medium supplied from a paper tray provided on a lower end portion side of the body parton a paper transport path. The paper tray can be set with the paper for forming the document image by the image forming unitA.

A paper tray for manual feeding is also provided on a side surface of the body partin the image forming apparatus, and the paper for forming the document image by the image forming unitA can also be set in the paper tray.

A color sensorA is provided on the paper transport path in the paper transport device. The color sensorA is a color identification sensor capable of identifying the color of the paper transported on the paper transport path.

The output unitincludes a paper discharge tray provided on a side surface of the body part. An output product in which the document image is formed in the image forming unitA is output to the paper discharge tray. In the output unit, only one paper discharge tray or a plurality of paper discharge trays may be provided.

The control devicereceives a job via the input operation performed by the user on the image forming apparatus, and executes control of causing the image forming apparatusto execute the designated job. The control devicedetermines whether or not to print the hidden information on the recording medium.

The control deviceincludes a CPU, a memoryas a temporary storage region, a non-volatile storage unit, a medium reading/writing device (R/W), a communication interface (I/F) unit, and an external I/F unit. The CPU, the memory, the storage unit, the medium reading/writing device, the communication I/F unit, and the external I/F unitare connected to each other via a bus B. The medium reading/writing devicereads out information written on a recording mediumand writes information on the recording medium. The communication I/F unitis, for example, an interface for communicably connecting a server provided outside the control deviceand various terminals used by the user to the control device. For the communication I/F unit, for example, communication standards, such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark), Bluetooth (registered trademark), and local area network (LAN), are used.

The storage unitis realized by a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), a flash memory, or the like. An information processing programA is stored in the storage unitas a storage medium. The recording mediumin which the information processing programA is written is set in the medium reading/writing device, and the medium reading/writing devicereads out the information processing programA from the recording medium, whereby the information processing programA is stored in the storage unit. The CPUreads out the information processing programA from the storage unitand loads the information processing programA into the memory, and sequentially executes processes included in the information processing programA. A color information databaseB, which will be described below, is stored in the storage unit.

Next, a functional configuration of the control deviceaccording to the present exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to. As shown in, the control deviceincludes an acquisition unitA, an instruction unitB, and a control unitC. The CPUof the control deviceexecutes the information processing programA to function as the acquisition unitA, the instruction unitB, and the control unitC.

The acquisition unitA acquires an execution instruction for the printing job via the input unitfrom the user or an execution instruction for the printing job via the network. In this case, the acquisition unitA acquires “image information” which is document data for which the user has issued a printing instruction.

In addition, in a case in which a printing instruction for the hidden information is executed by the user, the acquisition unitA can acquire the “printing instruction for the hidden information” in addition to the execution instruction for the printing job.

The acquisition unitA acquires the color information of the coloring material filled in the cartridgeB from the color sensorC. In addition, the acquisition unitA can also acquire the color information of the recording medium on which the image information for which the printing instruction has been issued is printed from the color sensorA.

A case in which the acquisition unitA does not acquire the color of the recording medium will be described. In this case, the instruction unitB instructs the image forming unitA to print the hidden information by using the predetermined first coloring material in a case of executing the printing of the image information on the recording medium using the plurality of coloring materials via the image forming unitA.

Specifically, in a case in which any of the cartridgesB is filled with any of the yellow coloring material or the transparent coloring material, which is an example of the first coloring material, the instruction unitB instructs the image forming unitA “to print” the hidden information.

On the other hand, in a case in which none of the cartridgesB is filled with the yellow coloring material or the transparent coloring material, which is an example of the first coloring material, the instruction unitB instructs the image forming unitA “not to print” the hidden information.

However, even in a case in which the hidden information is not printed, the instruction unitB instructs the image forming unitA to print the image information for which the printing instruction has been issued.

In addition, in a case in which the cartridgeB filled with the first coloring material is replaced with the cartridgeB filled with the second coloring material during the execution of the printing, the instruction unitB instruct the image forming unitA not to print the hidden information during the execution of the printing from this case onward.

That is, in a case in which the first coloring material is replaced with the second coloring material that does not print the hidden information during the printing of the image information and the hidden information using the first coloring material, the hidden information is not printed.

Similarly, in a case in which the cartridgeB filled with the second coloring material is replaced with the cartridgeB filled with the first coloring material during the execution of the printing, the instruction unitB instructs the image forming unitA to print the hidden information during the execution of the printing from this case onward.

That is, in a case in which the second coloring material is replaced with the first coloring material capable of printing the hidden information during the printing of the image information using the second coloring material (in this case, the hidden information is not printed), the hidden information is printed.

A case in which the acquisition unit acquires the color of the recording medium will be described. In this case, the instruction unitB can print the hidden information using the second coloring material in a case in which the color of the recording medium and the color of the second coloring material match a predetermined combination during the execution of the printing of the image information on the recording medium via the image forming unitA using the plurality of coloring materials.